Tropical Aquarium Fish

Betta splendens as an aquarium fish can be different than the wild Betta splendens. As specie, it is part of the Anabantidae family, with the particularity of having an auxiliary breathing system called labyrinth. It lives in south-east Asia worm waters, with lack of oxygen. It is an easy to breed fish; it can survive in small non aerated tanks. If you want to have beautiful bettas for expositions you`ll have to keep your betta in a small aquarium, tank or pot in order to develop its beauty. For this thing it only needs minimum care, with an equilibrated feeding just not to dirty the water. You have the oportunity now to buy good betta tanks as the ones from next images (click to view details): If you keep your betta in a small space, you`ll have to replace the water from time to time with fresh one. Betta splendens doesn`t need any special water conditions (chemistry, pH, etc…) but it requests a temperature of 28-30° C, and for reproduction with 1-2° C higher. If you keep betas in 1 liter tanks you`ll gave to change the water every 2 days. When you do the water change you`ll be careful to the new temperature, it has to be the same as the old one. Even to a strong fish like Betta splendens, the big differences of water chemistry can induce severe accidents. If we see a betta sitting on the bottom of the tank, or being inactive, that`s a sign of the water change need. After changing the water, you`ll immediately see your betta more active. It`s recommended to add a spoon of salt at every gallon of water.

From the food point of view, Betta splendens doesn`t request much, if you feed at regular intervals and with enough food, everything will be fine. You can feed your betta with: daphnia (alive or frozen), mosquito larva, cow meat, tubifex, Artemia salina (alive or frozen). Indifferently of the food you give, it`s better to administrate it more times a day than once and much. That way you`ll also be able to give diversified food, as any freshwater fish needs. If you want to read more info about your betta fish in order to help you better take care of it, you can buy this manual with many colored pictures. An over feed with an aliment can induce water chemistry change and the apparition of diseases. Usually Betta splendens lives about 1.5-2 years, but there are cases when it lives more than 3 years. An excess of food shorts the life of the fish. From the water conditions point of view, the temperature is very important. Bettas can live at a temperature of minimum 21° C and maximum 29° C. A temperature higher than 30° C affects the living duration of the betta. There is some information about betta which lived 9 years in laboratory conditions. Every fish was kept in a different tank with a volume of few gallons.

Reproduction of Betta splendens

Having in mind water`s quality, Betta is a pretentious fish. The tanks used for spawning can have different forms and volumes. Thus, in Orient are utilized ceramic tanks. As a supplementary information, it would be neither too little, nor too big (to help fishes to stay one with another). Talking about the temperature, there are information about the fact that Betta spawned at 18 degrees C, but a successful result can be obtained at a temperature between 24 and 29 degrees. This temperatures reflect the natural biotope`s ones. We can observe the fact that the success of reproduction doesn`t consist only in having special aquarium`s condition but in providing the biological material… Coming back to the temperature, we can see that the ones after 30 C degrees disturb the fish and the little ones resulted (the roe have to grow faster) are powerless and die before they became able to swim.

A first criterion which helps us to choose the spawn match is the color. At first it is important to have fries but than at a second or third reproduction we will become exigent. We will choose a red match (a blue, white or green one) to have the reproduction. So let`s see how we can do this because it is not sufficient to put the together in the same aquarium. After the color criterion, we have to know if they are mature from the sexual point of view. We already have the aquarium, the water`s temperature. What do we need more for a successful reproduction? As a know fact for all oviparous, we have to introduce the female in the reproduction bowl with 12-24 hours before. In Betta`s case, in the aquarium we have to put a group of floating plans: Riccia fluitans, Ceratopteris, and another group like Cryptocarine. Their roots are caught with a lead clasp and are put in 2 or 3 of the aquarium corners. It helps to the making the nest spume by the male (support for the future roe), and the plants from the corners will served as places where the female can hide itself in time and after spawning. We consider these because the female get used harder with new conditions. We consider it`s better to introduce the female in the tank with 12-24 hours before the male because she accommodates slowly with the new conditions. The male get used easier and if the female is not ready it can run after it and kill it. The reproduction starts with the male building a nest on water`s surface. For this thing, some people put a paper or a plastic cup on the surface because the males can build the nest under it. It is preferable to put only some Ceratopteris plants or Echinodorus osiris` or E. orizontalis` leafs. What we need and what we have to do to prepare the aquarium:
- a 40 l aquarium;
- we put water which has more than 48 hours;
- we put the floating plants and the groups in the corner. In addition, we have to create places for fishes and fries;
- the water column will have not more than 10 cm because Betta`s eggs are harder than water and after fecundation they fall down. Than it are taken by the male and fixed in the nest. If the column is higher, after 4-5 turns the male gets tired and it doesn`t care anymore about the reproduction, letting down the eggs. This fact is helpful for the fry too because its can go alone to the nest;
- a constant temperature: 26-28° C ;
- on the aquarium we have to put a glass, because it will maintain the temperature which has to be provide even after 30 days of lift ( the fry needs to develop the breathing auxiliary organs, labyrinth) and the necessary humidity from the natural biotope.

Now a very important tip: most of the betta breeders don’t know that you can increase your spawning success by adding some wild almond leaves in the reproduction tank. This will create a more natural environment for the Betta fish. The leaves contain humic acids and tannins and are known to have antibacterial properties. But here’s the trick: good almond leaves can be hardly found BUT you can buy this sollution which contains exactract of almond leaves and much more… check the image for more details.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 28th, 2006 at 6:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized aquarium fish, Anabantoids aquarium fish. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.